Series: Icewind Dale Trilogy 1
This is the first book on the Forgotten Realms Drizzt saga, yes the first book and not the fourth book and they are now trying to tell us it is... this was the first to be published, it introduces us to the characters and so on. Just because Salvatore decided to make some prequels years later that doesn't retroactively make this the fourth book. This isn't even like Star Wars as there was no previous plan to have three previous novels, that was just cashing in to the success of the series (well, so was Star Wars, but the idea was there very close to the beginning).
It's an OK fantasy novel, not much here is great, not the writing or even most of the characters or the plot-line but it helps flesh out the world and sets up an interesting basis for further adventures, and the book ends clearly pointing us towards the next volume in the series, this isn't really a stand-alone. Many see Drizzt as a paragon of the fantasy genre growing up by having a black character... as having an anti-racist message, well that might indeed be partially the case but it is undermined by the fact that Drizzt is very much an exception among exceptions, he's the one good black elf, all other black elves are horrible criminals, this guy is special... so you know, not a great message. Still, it's a fun read.
TL;DR: 6/10
